VESICOVAGINAL FISTULA

Objectives: To screen the women suffering from vesico-vaginal fistulae fordepression prior to surgery and different potential precipitating factors that may be involved.Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study conducted on 22 women diagnosed withvesico-vaginal fistula admitted. Period: 15 April 2014 to 15 October 2014. Setting: Welfareward of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Unit at Isra University Hospital Hyderabad, Sindh–Pakistan, waiting for surgery were included in the study. Material and method: Women withother causes of urinary incontinence, any co-morbidity and pregnant women were excluded.All data collected on a preformed proforma including the demographic data, profile of fistulaand attitude of the husbands, family and neighbors towards them and Hamilton rating scalefor depression (HAM-D) was used for screening the patients for depression, after the verbalconsent of individuals and was analyzed on SPSS version 16.0. Results: The mean age of 22study participants was 36.36(±9.204) years ranging from 22-55.Majority 81.8% patients weresuffering from different severity of depression. Many patients wished they were dead, felt lifeis not worth living, had suicidal ideas, and even one attempted to commit suicide. Majority ofpatient’s husbands and family were sympathetic and encouraging but many were maltreated bytheir neighbors (p=0.04). Conclusion: These patients are living with more than just a physicaldefect which needs to be considered as part of their treatment.